The fireflies continued to hum faintly around me, their soft glow my only reply to Dimitri's venomous challenge. Some took it for weakness, others for unshakable confidence. Either way, none could deny—the Eternal Firefly King had chosen.
But across the plaza, the tide of fate shifted yet again! Elyahna of the Frozen Heart Clan moved with quiet grace, her silver-blue robes trailing frost as she walked the outer ring of statues. Her eyes, colder than glaciers, lingered on one effigy after another. Sirens. War-Queens. Blade-Saints. Her aura pulsed with restrained curiosity, searching for the one that resonated with her frozen Dao.
Frost bloomed under her steps as she came upon a towering statue of a veiled woman carved from pale crystal, arms raised as if conducting the stars themselves. The air around it bit like winter, its inheritance whispering promises of celestial ice.
Her hand reached out—
—but the moment her qi brushed the statue, shadows stirred. A pack of prodigies, long lurking, surged from the crowd and encircled her.
"Frozen Heart's little snow blossom," one sneered, his aura flickering with molten flame, clearly from the Magma scale Clan. "Did you think you'd waltz into an inheritance without a fight?"
Another, lean and cruel eyed from the Blood fang clan, bared his teeth. "She's already worth 78 tokens. If we take her down here, not only do we grow stronger, but she won't gain an inheritance!" There were ten in total, each exuding killing intent that blended into a net. Worst still, the Will of the Continent meant no elder could intervene—inside the Inheritance ring, it was survival of the fittest.
Elyahna's expression was ice cold. Frost gathered around her lashes as she whispered, voice sharp as a breaking ice sheet. "Fools. You mistake the cold for fragility." The Magma scale prodigy lunged with three others!
Molten fists blazing!
His strike melted the frost underfoot, but Elyahna's hand lifted lazily. A curtain of crystalline ice blossomed in midair, his fist embedding uselessly within. A heartbeat later, the shield shattered—not inward, but outward—sending spears of frozen icicles into his chest and the three others! He crumpled, gasping, his fire extinguished. The others faltered, but reassuring one another, they pressed in. Blades, fangs, and qi slammed against her aura!
Elyahna exhaled, and the very air froze! Their movements slowed, joints locking as frost crawled up their weapons. Her eyes narrowed, voice low and merciless!
"Fools!
Did you not know?
Ice devours just as fire does."
With a flick of her wrist, the frost surged! Forming a storm of blades that shredded the Blood fang disciple's defense! His scream echoed as he fell, scarlet blood steaming against her snow. The last five hesitated. One tried to flee—but the frost storm curved, dragging him back! The other roared in desperation, qi flaring bright—only for Elyahna's palm to close, encasing him in a sarcophagus of solid ice.
In moments, silence reigned.
The plaza whispered in awe as Elyahna stood amid a ring of frozen prodigies, frost crackling at her feet. She looked back up at the statue of the crystalline woman, her breath visible in the frigid air. The statue's carved lips seemed almost to smile. The cold shimmered brighter, as if acknowledging her worth.
She was the Veiled Queen of Crystal Night Queen Auryth!
Known in myths as The Monarch who froze the very Stars in position! In ages past, Queen Auryth ruled a kingdom caught between warring empires. Her armies were small, her allies fleeting. When surrounded, she walked alone to the battlefield and raised her veil.
And the night itself.....froze. Stars above dimmed, their light captured in crystalline frost that rained down like knives. When dawn came, her enemies were encased in eternal ice, their banners frozen mid-flight. She vanished afterward, some say stepping into the cold void between stars, where her veil still drifts. Her inheritance remains a fragment of that infinite, unyielding cold.
According to Queen Auryth, Stillness was not weakness. Stillness was dominion. Ice was patient, inevitable, eternal—while flame devoured, ice endured. Until it claimed everything in silence. True rulership was not about burning brightest but about letting all beneath your gaze freeze into obedience. Her cultivation style drew qi not as rushing flame but as lattices of frozen light, weaving their essence into crystalline patterns that harden with each cycle. In higher stages, the cultivator's aura formed a Veil of Stars, frost illusions that distorted enemy perception and trapped them in frozen reflections of themselves.
Every layer of frost the cultivator summoned was not just cold—it was a fragment of celestial night, solidified into unbreakable crystal.
The Crystal Night Inheritance possessed many signature techniques.
Such as:
Frozen Sovereignty
Crystal Entombment
Celestial Icefall
and finally, the Queens Ultimate Concept — The ''Eternal Veil of Night.'' technique. At the peak of her inheritance, Elyahna could manifest the Veil of Eternal Night, draping the battlefield in a cosmic frost where time itself became meaningless. Under that veil, stars would dim and bow to her. She would be able to transform into a freezing gale that slid across frozen glass. Her body would become one with the crystal, untouchable, sovereign, a Queen ruling an eternal winter.
Elyahna had always been seen as cold, untouchable, even fragile by rivals—but the Veiled Queen now showed her that cold was not fragility, but rule. Where Ash's Firefly King taught endurance through renewal, Elyahna's Veiled Queen taught eternity through dominion and stillness.
Together, they formed a fascinating duality: Flickering light that persisted vs. Frozen starlight that commanded. Elyahna's boots touched down lightly on the marble of the Inheritance Plaza, her breath trailing white in the air. She'd been drifting between effigies, silent, analytical, her crystalline aura dim and veiled. But then she stopped.
Her pale eyes widened—drawn irresistibly to a lone figure set apart among the ring of sovereign statues. The statue of a Queen shrouded in a half-lowered veil, cut of flawless moonstone, so lifelike the folds of her gown seemed ready to ripple in the wind. Frost dusted her shoulders, and a crown of glacial spires glimmered faintly under the plaza's ethereal light. For a heartbeat, Elyahna thought she imagined it.
Then—
The air dropped. A chill seeped through her bones, not hostile, but regal, absolute. The temperature plummeted around the statue, frost feathering across the marble. Her hair lifted slightly, not from wind, but from some vast, still current of power. And the veil… moved. It descended, slowly, a sliver, as if acknowledging her presence. As it lowered, a breath of star-frost light spilled out, bathing Elyahna in shimmering motes like frozen constellations. They clung to her shoulders, her pale lashes, even her lips, making her seem already crowned in frost.
The fireflies had gathered on Ash earlier—gentle, hopeful. But these frozen lights came to Elyahna like sworn vassals. The faint sound of crystal chimes resonated in her ears, like a thousand frozen stars humming in unison. And with it, a whisper not of words but of will: Stillness is dominion. Around her, prodigies murmured uneasily.
"The Veiled Queen…? No one's ever seen her stir."
"She… she's actually lowering her veil for Elyahna…"
"That cold—my spirit nearly froze just looking at it…"
Elyahna's lips parted. Her eyes reflected the Queen's veil, now half-lowered, as though revealing a secret face only she was allowed to glimpse. She felt her pulse steady—not quicken, but steady, firm, as if her heartbeat itself had crystallized into something enduring.
For once, the aloof prodigy of the Frozen Heart Clan did not feel the need to posture. She simply inclined her head, her breath frosting in the air, and whispered softly to herself: "I see you… Queen of Crystal Night." And the lights around her pulsed in answer! like stars bowing to their monarch.
The frost light still clung to Elyahna, sparkling across her armor and pale lashes. The plaza seemed to pause around her, the frozen constellations hovering in midair. But admiration and awe in the crowd quickly turned into opportunity. From the shadows cast by the towering statues, three prodigies emerged, each wearing the look of predators hungry for tokens:
Marnath of the fire tempter Clan – molten flame swirling in his palms, intent on overpowering. Ariel of the Banded Hawk Clan – agile, fanged, her twin daggers humming with crimson qi, ready to strike at gaps. Dunric of the Black Thorn Clan – manipulated thorned shadows that writhe along the ground like serpents, seeking to pin her.
"Frozen Heart's little frostling," Marnath called, flames licking the air around him, "come out from hiding little ice queen!" Lira hissed, circling, daggers catching the frosted light, "We'll see if she melts under fire—or if she's just a statue herself." Dunric's shadows stretched and snapped, forming a web around Elyahna as he murmured, "No corner of this plaza will hide you."
Elyahna didn't move at first—she let the Veiled Queen's frost light swirl around her like a cloak. The air grew colder, the motes of light coalescing into tiny, crystalline shards that hovered in readiness. She exhaled. A single breath, cold as midnight: "Then let us see which melts first."
Marnath lunged, a wave of molten flame surging toward her! Elyahna's palm rose. The frost light flared! Freezing the molten wave midair! Encasing it in a crystal lattice that could not harm her. Shards rained harmlessly around her like static starlight. Ariel darted forward, blades aimed at her head and shoulders. The frost motes wove into a veil of mirrors, reflecting her daggers' trajectory back at her, forcing her to duck and scramble.
Each reflected strike left streaks of frost on the ground, slowing her movements. Dunric hissed, trying to pierce through with shadow thorns. Elyahna's breath exhaled again, and the frozen shards sharpened into spike-like projections, impaling and freezing the advancing shadows before they could touch her! Dunric tumbled back, trapped briefly in his own severed tendrils.
The prodigies regrouped, shouting, flailing in frustration, but their rage had settled fully around Elyahna now. The statue above shimmered faintly, as if lending her strength, the veil half-lowered, eyes of carved crystal gleaming with silent approval. Elyahna's lips curled into a faint, cold smile. Summoning her mystic frost bloodline power the air itself seemed to crystallize around her movement as she stepped forward, each step leaving trails of glimmering frost.
"You sought to ambush me," she said, voice calm and deadly, "but this night answers only to its Queen!"
''FROSTFALL ANNIHILATION!''
With a sweep of her hand, the frost shards lifted and swirled into a miniature blizzard. Marnath's flames hissed and cracked, Lira's daggers slowed as frost entwined them, and Dunric's shadow-thorns froze solid midair. One by one, the prodigies stumbled, staggering beneath her calculated, crystalline assault. By the time the motes settled, the three lay frozen, bruised, and bitterly aware that Elyahna was no mere apprentice—the Veiled Queen had chosen her, and her trial had begun.
The three prodigies groaned and struggled under the frost shards, their bodies battered, their qi partially frozen by Elyahna's assault.
Above them, faint glimmering glyphs appeared in the plaza's air—tokens, glowing silver like frozen stars.
36… 35… 33…
As each rival fell, their tokens were ripped from their Auras, spinning through the air toward Elyahna! The Frost light swirled around her, drawing the fragments in a spiral of frozen radiance.
She held her palm forward, letting the tokens merge with the swirling frost of her aura. The air temperature plummeted even further.
Even Ash, standing near the Eternal Firefly King's glow, had to circulate his Ember fire barrier, flames spiraling around him to prevent the frost from creeping over his limbs. The plaza's edges began icing over, stone turning slick and crystalline. And then… the signal of true resonance. From the center of the statue, a blizzard erupted! Sudden and massive, cascading over the plaza like a snow storm unleashed from frozen heavens! Snow, frost, and motes of starlight swirled together in a vortex, wrapping the entire ring of statues in dazzling, deafening power!
I tightened my coils, flames thrumming to counter the freezing onslaught, but Elyahna moved forward unflinching. The blizzard swirled around her like a crown, glittering shards tracing patterns of frost across her robes, highlighting her silhouettes raw beauty. Then, in the heart of the storm, a silver line split the icy vortex, cutting a straight path from the base of the statue to a door of shimmering frost light!
It gleamed like liquid silver and gradually widened, opening into a threshold that beckoned her. The tokens she had absorbed pulsed in unison, a bridge connecting her victory over the rival prodigies to the inheritance above. Elyahna's frost-misted breath billowed as she stepped forward, the storm bending subtly around her like the plaza itself was making way.
Her fingertips grazed the silver line. It hummed under her touch, responding to her qi, the Veiled Queen's blessing guiding her. She lifted her head, eyes meeting the statue's crystal gaze once more, and then she stepped through. The door of frost light closed behind her with a low crystalline chime, leaving the plaza littered with fallen prodigies and the soft whisper of lingering frost.
The blizzard slowly receded, leaving the plaza icy but calm. The freeze had helped cool tempers. My fire-coil barrier was only heat in the silent aftermath. Above it all, the Veiled Queen's statue shimmered faintly, half-veiled, as if smiling. Her whisper, carried in the wind, barely audible:
"Stillness is dominion… and now, my chosen walks within."